A creek in Denmark has surprised researchers with the presence of a previously unknown creature. virus species. Denmark’s creeks, Odense A and Lindved A have surprised researchers and students at SDU with previously unknown virus species. Associate Professor Clare Kirkpatrick, who studies bacteria, said: “We have found five new species that we believe are unknown to science.” stress response at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Southern Denmark.
The somewhat surprising discovery was made during the coronavirus pandemic when some of Kirkpatrick’s students were unable to do normal bacteriological studies in the lab and thus made field trips to the creeks. local to see if they offer any interesting bacteria. The fact that viruses exist in nature is not surprising since they are the most common organism in the world. They’re everywhere and part of all sorts of microbial cycles and ecosystems, but the fact that five new species are likely to emerge in local creeks surprised Clare Kirkpatrick.
While four of the five species that have not yet had their genomes mapped by genome sequence, one species has now been fully sequenced, scientifically described, named, and published in a Financial Notice Biological resources. The name is Fyn8. Many viruses are called bacteriophages (or bacteriophages), meaning they kill bacteria, and Fyn8 is no exception. It can attack and kill Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a bacterium found naturally in soil and water. It is usually harmless to healthy people, but like many other bacteria, it has developed resistance to antibiotics and is found in hospitals. For example, patients with wounds (such as burn patients) and patients on ventilators are at risk for infections that antibiotics cannot fight.
The researchers have no doubt that Fyn8 can effectively kill Pseudomonas aeruginosa: “We can see it with the naked eye: Holes clearly appear on the bacterial layer Pseudomonas aeruginosa in their Petri dishes. me, where Fyn8 infected the bacterial cells, killed them, multiplied, and proceeded to attack.”
Considering that the world is facing a crisis of drug resistance, in which more people will die from drug-resistant bacterial infections than from cancer, the new discovery is of course very interesting and raises questions; Can phages help us in the fight against drug-resistant bacteria?
Research in this area has not been widespread until recently, both in academic research institutions and in pharmaceutical companies. However, in the past and elsewhere in the world, there have been some studies and phages have also been used to treat infections in Eastern European countries in particular.
Phages were discovered in the early 20th century by researchers who cultured bacteria destroyed by viral infections. The benefits of that discovery are clear, but antibiotics, not phages, have become the most common cure against bacterial infections. One reason may be that antibiotics are easy to manufacture and use, while phages are difficult to isolate and give to patients. Another reason is perhaps also that a single dose of antibiotic can kill many different types of bacteria, while a phage is only suitable for a single species of bacteria.
“But today, it’s relatively easy to make the exact drug for each patient. First, you figure out the exact bacteria the patient has an infection with – and then you can treat the patient with exactly the phage will kill the bacteria,” explains Clare Kirkpatrick.
She added that this strategy works even on bacteria resistant to all known antibiotics. Clare Kirkpatrick believes time will tell whether more new virus species will be found in the local creeks near the University of Southern Denmark campus, but it is entirely possible.
This story was published from the wire dealer’s feed without text modification. Only the title has been changed.
